burn451

Manage your reading queue from the terminal.

Save articles. Triage them. Let the rest burn.

CLI for Burn 451 — the reading triage system with a 24h countdown.

Why

You have 47 tabs open. You'll "read them later." You won't.

Burn 451 gives every saved article a 24-hour countdown. Read it or lose it. burn451 brings that system to your terminal — save URLs, check what's burning, search your history, see your triage stats. No browser required.

Install

npm install -g burn451

Quick start

# 1. Get your token from burn451.cloud/settings → MCP Server
burn451 login bmcp_your_token_here

# 2. See what's burning
burn451 flame

# 3. Save something
burn451 save https://karpathy.bearblog.dev/verifiability/

# 4. Check your stats
burn451 stats

Commands

| Command | What it does | |---|---| | burn451 login <token> | Authenticate (token from burn451.cloud/settings) | | burn451 brief | Daily launch page — burning soon + new + absorbed today | | burn451 digest [days] | Recent absorbed articles summary (default: 7 days) | | burn451 flame | Show articles burning soon (< 6h remaining) | | burn451 list [filter] | List bookmarks: flame (default), vault, spark, all | | burn451 save <url> | Save URL to Flame (24h countdown starts) | | burn451 search <query> | Search across all bookmarks | | burn451 stats | Your reading triage statistics | | burn451 triage | Interactive triage — k/r/d each article | | burn451 keep \| read \| delete <id> | Move an article by id |

Examples

# Start of day — what to read first
burn451 brief

# Weekly digest → markdown, paste into your notes or blog
burn451 digest 7 --markdown > week-16.md

# JSON output for downstream scripts (jq, Raycast, shortcuts)
burn451 brief --json | jq '.burning_soon'

# What needs attention right now?
burn451 flame

# Everything in your permanent vault
burn451 list vault --limit=50

# Find that MCP article you saved
burn451 search "MCP server"

# Save from a pipe
echo "https://simonwillison.net/2026/Apr/8/muse-spark/" | xargs burn451 save

# Interactive triage session — keep/read/delete each article
burn451 triage

Authentication

Two ways to authenticate:

Option 1: Login command (persistent)

burn451 login bmcp_your_token
# Token saved to ~/.burn451/config.json

Option 2: Environment variable

export BURN_MCP_TOKEN=bmcp_your_token
burn451 flame

Get your token at burn451.cloud/settings → MCP Server section.

How it works

burn451 CLI → Burn 451 API (Supabase) → Your reading queue
     ↕
~/.burn451/config.json (token)
~/.burn451/session.json (cached JWT, 5min TTL)

No intermediate server. Your CLI talks directly to Burn's API with your token. Session is cached locally for 5 minutes to avoid repeated token exchanges.

Part of the Burn ecosystem

| Tool | What it does | |---|---| | burn451 (this) | CLI for daily queue management | | burn-mcp-server | MCP server — 26 tools for Claude/Cursor | | burn-daily-triage | Claude Code Routine — auto-triage every morning | | morning-brief | Daily briefing from GitHub + reading + tasks | | reading-digest | Weekly digest from your bookmarks |

Roadmap

• [x] v0.1 — login, flame, list, save, search, stats
• [x] v0.2 — keep, read, delete, interactive triage
• [x] v0.3 — brief (daily launch page), digest (weekly summary, --markdown/--json)
• [ ] v0.4 — export (full backup), shell completion, themed output
• [ ] v0.5 — Interactive TUI mode with vim-style navigation

License

MIT — see LICENSE